Record demand for more than 5 billion euro from 270 investors This transaction will enable CDP to consolidate its role as Italy's leading investor in social housing initiatives Rome, 4 February 2020 - Cassa Depositi e Prestiti Spa (CDP) has launched the first Italian Social Bond focused on Social Housing on the capital market today, intended for institutional investors, for a total of 750 million euro. The funds raised will be used to support the building of social housing, with initiatives dedicated to those weaker population brackets that do not possess the requirements to access Public Residential Housing, but are unable to meet their housing needs at market conditions due to either financial constraints or for the absence of an adequate offer.
Cassa Depositi e Prestiti has been committed to social housing for more than a decade, supporting and integrating policies by the Government and local authorities, with a commitment of 1 billion euro in the Fondo Investimenti per l’Abitare (FIA), which is managed by CDP Investimenti SGR (70% owned by CDP) and has a size of approximately 2 billion euro. In addition to these, as part of the Integrated System of Real Estate Funds (SIF), a further 1+ billion euro has been committed by about 200 investors, including banking foundations, local authorities, institutional investors, cooperatives and private real estate companies.
The strong interest in this type of issuance is confirmed by the fact that the transaction attracted the highest number of orders and investors since CDP’s debut on the capital markets. The issue, aimed primarily at Socially Responsible Investors, was subscribed by over 270 investors, with a participation of foreign investors equal to 65% of the total.
CDP's Chief Executive Officer Fabrizio Palermo commented: “Today’s successful bond issue further strengthens our commitment to social housing and confirms CDP as a benchmark for our country’s sustainable development, in line with the 2019-2021 Business Plan. The Social Housing Bond represents a new and important element of a strategy to create shared value, integrating environmental and social criteria in CDP’s activities, with the objective of providing a tangible contribution to the achievement of the goals set by the UN 2030 Agenda”.
In particular, today's bond issue aims at providing concrete solutions for the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 1 and 11 (respectively: “aimed at ending poverty in all its forms everywhere” and “making cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable”). It also bears witness to CDP’s strong commitment to encourage the country’s sustainable development in line with the 2019-2021 Business plan, which leads CDP towards the targets of the UN’s 2030 Agenda. The issue of the new “Social Housing Bond” is part of an issuance plan focusing on sustainable finance and follows the launches of Social Bonds in 2017 and 2019 (respectively for 500 and 750 million euro) and of a Sustainability Bond in 2018 (for 500 million euro). The funds collected to support the Social Housing initiatives will be used on the basis of the criteria described in the “CDP Green, Social and Sustainability Bond Framework”, on which the independent advisor Vigeo Eiris has provided a “Second Party Opinion”. Both are available on CDP’s website (cdp.it).
In a historical phase such as the one we are experiencing, social housing is a value for the entire community, representing a remedy for housing inequality, an effective tool to combat social exclusion and a flywheel of productive efficiency.
The new “Social Housing Bond” - issued according to the Debt Issuance Programme (DIP), CDP’s medium-long term issuance programme totalling 10 billion euro – has a nominal value of 750 million euro, is fixed-rate, unsubordinated and unsecured. Based on the positive market feedback and the amount of orders received, the coupon is set at 1%, equal to 113 basis points above the benchmark mid-swap rate, around 22 basis points lower than initial guidance.
The medium/long-term rating of the notes, whose admission to trading on the Luxembourg Stock Exchange was applied for, will be equal to BBB (negative) for S&P, BBB (negative) for Fitch and BBB+ (stable) for Scope.
Banca IMI (Intesa Sanpaolo Group), Credit Agricole CIB, HSBC, Mediobanca, UBI Banca and UniCredit acted as Joint Lead Managers and Joint Bookrunners for the transaction.